There are two video games named Splatterhouse. One of them is a 3D M-rated video game that was released in 2010 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The second is a 2D T-rated video game that was released in 1988 in arcades and consoles such as the TurboGrafx-16.

To keep them distinct, the IGDB labels the M-rated video game “Splatterhouse (2010)” and the T-rated video game “Splatterhouse (1988)”.

But in Twitch, both video games are listed as “Splatterhouse”. As a result, when a streamer chooses the game “Splatterhouse”, Twitch automatically assumes the streamer is playing both Splatterhouse (2010) and Splatterhouse (1988) at the same time.

This has two negative consequences. First, when a viewer looks up “Splatterhouse” on Twitch, all the game footage from Splatterhouse (2010) and Splatterhouse (1988) is clumped together, regardless of which game page they actually choose. This makes it much more difficult to find the live streams and vods they would want to watch, since the two video games are fundamentally different (the original Splatterhouse is a beat em up sidescroller while the 2010 game is a 3D beat em up hack and slash with completely different levels and cutscenes than the original).

Second, for the streamer, the automatic content classification will not work correctly. As of now, Twitch assumes you’re playing both Splatterhouse games at the same time. So your stream will always give the warning that there’s a mature rated game, even if you’re playing the T-rated version of Splatterhouse.

My recommended fix is to rename the two games named “Splatterhouse” in the Twitch database to “Splatterhouse (2010)” and “Splatterhouse (1988)” to match the IGDB. This solves the problem. The audience who wants to watch the M-rated version of Splatterhouse will no longer have their search results cluttered with an older, completely different Splatterhouse game. And the audience who wants to watch the T-rated version of Splatterhouse won’t get the miscommunication that the streamer is playing a “mature rated video game” from the content classification system.